I know the feeling. Mr. Thipu was a government employee. Although the service for which he worked generated a substantial profit for the state, it was always under great pressure to cut back. The annual picnic had to go.

It didn't help that the directors of the service were appointed by the Governor so top management changed every four years.

I think it's also unfortunate that many of the fifth estate sometimes jump the gun and accuse government workers of not doing things properly, when the real problem is that the reporter doesn't understand what it is that is being done

Like the venerable $600 toilet seat and the $200 hammers. If your government office needs hammers, you can't take $20 out of petty cash and go buy a couple at Home Depot or Sears. No, you have to put out a call for your suppliers to bid on. And if the lowest bid comes in at $200 per hammer, then that's how much your office will pay for them.

Here is where it gets tricky. I work for an organization that is part of the state government. The state decided where and what we can buy as far as anything beyond basic office supplies. Every once in a while, organization decrees we can no longer order from Y supplier, we must switch to Z. This can lead to big problems, when something supplied is only available from Y.

Also, no petty cash fund exists.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

I know the feeling. Mr. Thipu was a government employee. Although the service for which he worked generated a substantial profit for the state, it was always under great pressure to cut back. The annual picnic had to go.

It didn't help that the directors of the service were appointed by the Governor so top management changed every four years.

I think it's also unfortunate that many of the fifth estate sometimes jump the gun and accuse government workers of not doing things properly, when the real problem is that the reporter doesn't understand what it is that is being done

Like the venerable $600 toilet seat and the $200 hammers. If your government office needs hammers, you can't take $20 out of petty cash and go buy a couple at Home Depot or Sears. No, you have to put out a call for your suppliers to bid on. And if the lowest bid comes in at $200 per hammer, then that's how much your office will pay for them.

^That drives me mad at work, too. Stuff that I could pick up down the road for $3 has to go through an 'approved' supplier that charges $5 and so on up the line. Then when the press quite rightly takes offense at this waste of taxpayer dollars they blame the workers instead of the stupid bureaucratic system. All the while we're standing there saying "We know this is stupid! What are you looking at us for!"

This sooo much. I can't just get a purchase order and get notebooks on sale for .17 at wally world, no we have to use the "approved vendor" who charges $2.75 for a single 70 sheet one subject notebook. This kills me.

This is one of the reasons that I'm glad we don't belong strictly to the city or county. We can take advantage of the public purchasing contracts, but are not obligated to.

Several years ago I was tasked with purchasing a laptop and projector. The director had a melt down because I didn't use the state purchasing mechanism because sales taxes were included on the initial invoice. I pointed out that the price we paid was 1/3 for the same items and that had submitted the paperwork to the company to have tax deducted.

The three departments + state cops start covering the next set of schools going out from the three schools he showed up at. THey catch him, his parole is revoked, new charges filed and he goes back to school.

New receptionist Sally started in the new year, was doing fairly well - just the usual teething issues learning procedures etc - on the whole she seemed a good employee, there were really no concerns. At the end of her 3 month probation I had a meeting with her, she passed, yay great. But then later that day she apparently took offense at something a coworker said and walked out of the office at 4:30pm. Just left, went home. She apologised to me the next day and we discussed it, she said it would never happen again. The egregious offense was that they asked if they could help her with anything which she found patronising. (The other employee in question is a floating admin and it's her job to help when the others are busy!) Apparently Sally wanted to be able to complain about how busy she was without anybody offering to help or saying anything back.

Guess what? Yeah, it's happened again. Basically anytime her supervisor raises any issues with her or gives her any performance feedback, Sally throws an epic temper tantrum. Her attitude in the office is so poor that people dread being around her. She will get PA and completely shut down, responding with monosyllable answers. Due to her inability to take any feedback, and the fact her work is getting *worse* not better, she is now being performance managed and has received written warnings.

Except she refuses to accept this. She rants about how "inaccurate" our accusations are and also how "everybody does those things", but when we ask her to specify what is inaccurate, or put her concerns in writing, nothing happens. She keeps saying that she is a mature adult and doesn't have to put her concerns in writing, and that we are being "childish" and "targeting her". We ignored her rants and scheduled her some extra training on the very basic tasks that she keeps getting wrong. (Although we think that she does know how to do them, she just isn't bothering to do her work because she has a bad attitude and doesn't care, but we want to at least show we've given her every chance!).

The bit that had me and her supervisor rolling our eyes? Well, this week she got her mother to call in sick for her. Twice. Because apparently she has a rash. Yes, miss "I'm sooo mature and ya'll are childish" got her mummy to call in sick for her. If she'd lost her voice or was in hospital we'd understand, we're certainly not suggesting it's not ok for somebody else to call, but ... a rash? Obviously she just doesn't want to speak to either of us, but I keep hearing her voice saying "I'm so mature!" and "I'm an adult!" and then the supervisor saying "Her mum called in sick for her" and it makes me laugh everytime! The good news is she has no paid leave left so is unpaid, and everything is going so well with her gone. The floating admin is covering her role, and although it has made the admin teams workload much higher things overall are much better. Why? Well she procrastinated so much near the end that she'd create more problems (customers complaining etc) so now that her work is getting done quickly and efficiently there are fewer issues. We definitely need to replace her once she is finally gone for good, but right now it's just so nice to have her not here.... and that's never a good sign for your career, if your colleagues are HAPPY when you're gone. Fingers crossed we don't see her again!

We definitely need to replace her once she is finally gone for good, but right now it's just so nice to have her not here.... and that's never a good sign for your career, if your colleagues are HAPPY when you're gone. Fingers crossed we don't see her again!

Speaking of government employees, my father has a coworker who might not be trying to commit PD, but it sure looks odd.

Dad works for Large Government Organization, with a union. Said LGO and union have a VERY generous leave policy. As in, Dad has only been there for eight years and already has six or seven weeks of leave (sick and vacation) he can take every year. I can only imagine what the lifers have. Also, you can roll it over from year to year without issue, and can cash out up to six weeks when you retire as a nice going away present. Like I said, very generous.

Dad has a coworker who has been with the LGO for years longer than Dad. And this coworker uses up all of his sick and vacation time Every Single Year. Okay, that in and of itself isnít so bad. Itís his time, he can do with it what he will. But then he also take a few weeks of unpaid leave. To do things like a Bible camp with his children Ė a vacation, or at least something that can be accounted for a while in advance. This year, he has to have surgery. Itís September, heís already used up all his time. So instead of putting in for that unpaid leave like usual, he asks other employees to donate their time, b/c, you know, this was so unexpected (knee surgery, I think), and he canít handle this much time unpaid.

Dad declined donating time.

I was asked to donate sick leave to a former co-worker who had used up every minute of her vacation/sick leave, and then had to have her gallbladder out. I declined, and for much the same reason (as a federal employee we got both sick and annual leave, and it doesn't take that long to add up.)

However, once my dad asked me to donate a day's leave to a co-worker of his who had had cancer and had spent close to 3 months in the hospital. At the time I had plenty of leave, so agreed to do so, but when I called the number he provided me with the person I spoke to asked me how much "use-or-lose" I had. At that point in the year I had over 130 hours. This person told me that if I wanted to donate leave I'd have to donate all of my use-or-lose. I declined. If it had been my dad who needed the donated leave I'd have done it, but he was the only one.

The good news is she has no paid leave left so is unpaid, and everything is going so well with her gone. The floating admin is covering her role, and although it has made the admin teams workload much higher things overall are much better. Why? Well she procrastinated so much near the end that she'd create more problems (customers complaining etc) so now that her work is getting done quickly and efficiently there are fewer issues. We definitely need to replace her once she is finally gone for good, but right now it's just so nice to have her not here.... and that's never a good sign for your career, if your colleagues are HAPPY when you're gone. Fingers crossed we don't see her again!

My one boss is like this. She has no sense of teamwork, urgency, or even the fact that WORK needs to be done BEFORE all her personal carp. When she's out, things go so much smoother. But sadly, she keeps getting away with things since her boss is only in 2 days a week, and works from home the other 3, and doens't care for her, so doesn't care what she does, so no accountability whatsoever. We keep hoping karma will come for both of them, sooner, rather than later.

There's a bit of BG on this, to understand quite how special this girl is.

A brand new position is opening up on the support side of the organization I work with. They'll work with vendors/outside companies, who will work with the customers. The job is similar to one we have, except the new position will work strictly with vendors and have no interaction with actual customers.

The girl in question, B, has been working at the company for a few months longer than I have. She started out as a sales assistant, the position I'm still in, and has worked her way through a training program to become an entry level specialist on the support side. She has been at her new position for about five months or so, and is doing a good job, but nothing stands out about her performance. This job would be a lateral move for her, and only people at her level were encouraged to apply for the new position, otherwise it would be a cut in pay.

During her interview with my mom (her manager), she made several comments about how this whole thing was below her, and this position was going to be perfect, even though it was still an entry level position, because she would grow it so it wouldn't be below her any longer. Comments like this made it to mom's boss (VP over that department), who assured all the rest of the managers that while she may have a further interview because she was qualified, he would take those comments into consideration and would guarantee that short of a spectacular failure of anyone else equally qualified, her attitude was going to preclude her getting the position.

She still has a job, and will likely never know why she didn't get chosen, but since I met her, she's had an entitled attitude about everything. We all know by now that she graduated business school by 22, and she seems to be more and more bitter as time goes on that she's not CEO yet by 25. I'm really hoping she shapes up, because aside from the attitude she's a nice girl, but she's got to realize that a business degree doesn't really mean much in our industry. At all.

Mommy called her in sick? In our personnel policy, it expressly states that you have to call in yourself unless you are physically incapable. And they mean it: you better be out cold or in a med evac helicoptor.

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I have enough lithium in my medicine cabinet to power three cars across a sizeable desert. Which makes me officially...Three Cars Crazy

Mommy called her in sick? In our personnel policy, it expressly states that you have to call in yourself unless you are physically incapable. And they mean it: you better be out cold or in a med evac helicoptor.

My mother called in sick for me once. I had a vent tube down my throat at the time. I thought that was a pretty good reason to have somebody else call my boss.

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Some people lift weights. I lift measures. It's a far more esoteric workout. - (Quoted from a personal friend)

she seems to be more and more bitter as time goes on that she's not CEO yet by 25.

I used to work with someone like that - she was about 27 at the time and wanted to be a project leader when she'd worked for the company for only a couple of years. Now, had she approached our boss and said something like "I'd love to be a project leader - could you help me work towards reaching that goal? Give me some guidelines about what I should do, what kind of courses I should take, etc.?", that would have been one thing. She apparently thought that such a position should be hers for the asking, however, and when the bosses didn't fall over themselves to offer it to her, she threatened to quit. They called her bluff.

Several years later, she's had about three or four different jobs, and she occasionally talks nostalgically about how great it was at my company and how she wishes she could return. Once again, if she'd asked to come back, the bosses probably would've re-hired her. She's apparently waiting for them to call her, however, and if that's the case, she's in for a long wait.

Mommy called her in sick? In our personnel policy, it expressly states that you have to call in yourself unless you are physically incapable. And they mean it: you better be out cold or in a med evac helicoptor.

My mother called in sick for me once. I had a vent tube down my throat at the time. I thought that was a pretty good reason to have somebody else call my boss.

But see, you were physically incapable of calling.

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I have enough lithium in my medicine cabinet to power three cars across a sizeable desert. Which makes me officially...Three Cars Crazy

Years and years ago,a woman who worked as a housekeeper at the country hospital where my ex worked was almost fired because she had a near-fatal heart attack over the weekend, and what with the stress and fear of death and all, her family didn't get around to calling her in sick until Monday afternoon. Her boss counted that as a 'no call no show'. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed, and she was not fired.